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Writer's pictureVon Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela

ChildSIDE mobile app for independent communication and mobility of children with PIMD/SMID

Updated: May 26, 2021

Children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) or severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID) only communicate through movements, vocalizations, body postures, muscle tensions, or facial expressions on a pre- or protosymbolic level. Yet, to the best of our knowledge, hardly any system has been developed to collect their expressive behaviors and integrate it with location and environment data. Based on Scripts Theory and with the use of location and environmental sensing technologies, we developed ChildSIDE, a mobile app that collects caregivers’ interpretation of children with PIMD/SMID’s expressive behaviors with associated location and environment data. This study describes its design, development, and evaluation of its accuracy in terms of collecting behavior (versus paper-based collection) and transmitting location (iBeacon and GPS) and environment data (ALPS Sensors and OpenWeatherMap API) to the database. We had the chance to present and introduce our study the 2020 3rd International Conference on Education Technology Management (ICETM) was held in London, United Kingdom from 17th to 19th of December, 2020.


The conference focuses on educational technology which is defined as the research and ethical practice of promoting learning and enhancing performance through the development, use, and management of appropriate technological processes and resources. It is a method for developing instruction or training to enhance efficiency that is systematic and iterative. It includes learning theory, computer-based instruction, online learning, and m-learning, which is when mobile apps are used.

The joint conference was supported by the University of Barcelona, the University of Gloucestershire, assisted by the Korea National Open University, technically supported by Athabasca University in Canada and the Grupo de Investigacion de Tecnologia Educativa, with its media partner, information journal by MDPI.

Four keynote speeches on the recent and emerging researches on education and technology were given by Prof. Marlene Scardamalia from University of Toronto, Canada; Prof. Mario Barajas Frutos from University of Barcelona, Spain; Prof. Salah Al-Majeed from University of Lincoln, UK and Prof. Terry Anderson from Athabasca University, Canada.

There were 30 presenters who were mainly professors and students from different universities presented their work on the third day of the conference.

We were included in a parallel online session on Information System Development and Information Technology Application which was chaired by Prof. Andrea Nanetti, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Towards the end of the session, among 6 presentations from Japan, China, Tawain, India, Ecuador and Saudi Arabia, we were chosen as the Best Presentation Award which was based on Originality, Applicability, Technical Merit, Visual Aids, and English Delivery.


To know more about the conference program, proceedings and to see the gallery, please click this link http://www.icetm.org/2020.html.


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